Remote contractor system with site specific energy audit capability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Building control systems, such as HVAC, security, and lighting systems, often lack proactive maintenance, leading to inefficient operation, increased costs, and potential damage due to reactive maintenance approaches.
Innovation Solution
A remote system that communicates with building control systems to analyze data, develop thermal models, and provide energy audits, enabling predictive maintenance and improved operational efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If reactive maintenance approach is used (operating until failure), then operational costs increase and damage occurs, but the system requires minimal monitoring infrastructure
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary maintenance actions by analyzing HVAC operational data to predict failures before they occur. The remote system monitors parameters such as runtime, temperature differentials, and energy consumption to identify trends indicating impending failures, allowing maintenance to be scheduled proactively rather than reactively.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements continuous feedback loops where operational data from HVAC controllers is collected, analyzed, and used to generate maintenance recommendations. The feedback mechanism compares actual performance against predicted performance to identify deviations that indicate potential problems, enabling ongoing optimization and preventive maintenance.
2Productivity
If remote monitoring system is implemented, then maintenance efficiency improves and operational costs reduce, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The remote system is designed to work with multiple types of HVAC controllers and building management systems through standardized communication protocols. It performs multiple functions including data collection, thermal modeling, energy audit, and maintenance scheduling within a single integrated platform, reducing the need for separate specialized systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses existing communication infrastructure (modems, network connections) as intermediaries to transmit data between HVAC controllers and the remote analysis system. This approach avoids the need for dedicated complex communication hardware while enabling reliable data exchange for monitoring and analysis purposes.
3Loss of energy
If thermal modeling and energy audits are performed, then operational efficiency improves, but data processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary thermal modeling during the initial setup phase using building characteristics and historical weather data. This pre-computed model is then updated incrementally with actual operational data, reducing the need for intensive real-time processing while maintaining accurate energy efficiency assessments.
Solution Approach 2:
The system focuses data processing efforts on the most critical parameters and time periods, such as peak load conditions and periods of highest energy consumption. By concentrating analysis resources on these partial aspects rather than processing all data uniformly, the system achieves meaningful energy efficiency improvements without excessive processing overhead.
Data Source
AI summary
A system that allows a contractor to remotely monitor and/or interact with its customers' building control systems, such as heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and analyze information obtained from the building control systems over time. Such a system may help the contractor monitor and diagnosis customer building control systems, setup service calls, achieve better customer relations, create more effective marketing opportunities, as well as other functions. In some cases, the disclosed system may include a controller that analyzes data from HVAC systems, determines a thermal model of a space environmentally controlled by an HVAC system, and provides an energy audit of the space that is environmentally controlled by the HVAC system. The controller may output a result of the energy audit to a user.